Taoyuan Experience

Taoyuan Experience

Summarist	Wang Guangmei[1]
Purpose	to carry out Four Cleanups Movement

Taoyuan Experience
Traditional Chinese	桃園經驗
Simplified Chinese	桃园经验
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Táoyuán jīngyàn

Taoyuan Experience^[2] (Chinese: 桃园经验; lit. 'Peach Garden Experience^[3]') refers to the summary of the Four Cleanups Movement led by Wang Guangmei from November 1963 to April 1964 in the Taoyuan Production Brigade of Luwangzhuang Commune, Funing County, Hebei Province.^[4] The Experience was once recognized by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party^[5] and popularized nationwide.^[6] Yet, during the Cultural Revolution, it was widely blamed as an example of "leftism".^[7]

The representative work of the Taoyuan Experience is Wang Guangmei's report entitled General Summary of One Brigade's Experience in the Socialist Education Movement . ^[8]

Main content

The main content of the Taoyuan Experience is that after the socialist education working teams entered the countryside,^[9] firstly, they should engage in taking roots and establishing ties, visiting the poor, and gradually organize the class ranks from small to large; then carry out back-to-back denunciation struggles and "Four Cleanups"; then conduct class education in a concentrated and systematic manner and undertook struggles against the enemy; and finally engage in organization building.^[10]

Evaluation

There is an opinion that the Taoyuan Experience is a rehearsal of the Cultural Revolution in some form, and that it provides some experience for the Cultural Revolution at least in terms of method, form and ideology.^[11]

References

1. "Wang Guangmei on "Taoyuan Experience"". Duowei News. 2016-08-11.
2. Huang Shu-min; Shu-Min Huang (10 September 2019). The Spiral Road: Change In A Chinese Village Through The Eyes Of A Communist Party Leader. Routledge. pp. 74–. ISBN 978-1-00-030599-9.
3. Ying Ruocheng; Claire Conceison (17 October 2008). Voices Carry: Behind Bars and Backstage during China's Revolution and Reform. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 223–. ISBN 978-0-7425-5746-8.
4. Letian Zhang; Fuqun Xi; Yunxiang Yan (17 April 2018). Work Journals of Zhou Shengkang, 1961-1982 (2 vols.). Brill Publishers. pp. 336–. ISBN 978-90-04-35942-0.
5. Yang Tianshi; Zhu Di (2005). Eyewitness Memory, Volume 1. Shanghai Lexicographical Publishing House. pp. 271–. ISBN 978-7-5326-1943-6.
6. Lily Xiao Hong Lee; A. D. Stefanowska; Sue Wiles (1998). Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women. M.E. Sharpe. pp. 530–. ISBN 978-0-7656-0798-0.
7. Michael Schoenhals (1996). China's Cultural Revolution, 1966-1969: Not a Dinner Party. M.E. Sharpe. pp. 114–. ISBN 978-1-56324-736-1.
8. Timothy Cheek; Klaus Mühlhahn; Hans van de Ven (6 May 2021). The Chinese Communist Party: A Century in Ten Lives. Cambridge University Press. pp. 99–. ISBN 978-1-108-84277-8.
9. Bo Dingguo (2006). Historical Essays on Contemporary Chinese Literary Thought, 1956-1976. China Social Sciences Press. ISBN 978-7-5004-5414-4.
10. Liu Ji; Zhang Yun; Zhu Jinyuan (1991). Seventy Years of the Communist Party of China, 1921-1991. Shanghai People's Press. ISBN 978-7-208-01097-0.
11. Lu Xiaobing (4 November 2016). The Rights and Wrongs of Chinese History. Haye Publishing House. pp. 19–. ISBN 978-1-68182-081-1.